‘Logan’ Director Slams Tentpole Movies: ‘Bloated Exercises in 2-Hour Trailers’
Logan is considered one of the finest superhero movies ever made, and director James Mangold is being praised for his work on the film. The final Hugh Jackman Wolverine movie is unlike other comic book films in that it has fewer characters and more personal stakes. This made it look quite different than films from Marvel, DC, or even Fox.
While on The Business on KCRW, Mangold slammed tentpole franchises. “If I’m going to insult other movies, I’m going to do it with a big broom,” he said. “I’m going to say this is endemic. … I think, across all the boards — and by the way, outside of comic books, I’m talking about just tentpole movies in general — they’re not movies, generally. They’re bloated exercises in two-hour trailers for another movie they’re going to sell you in two years.”
Mangold also called out the trend of having throngs of characters that viewers see in films such as Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse. “There are so many characters that each character gets an arc of about six and a half minutes at best, and I’m not exaggerating,” he said. “I mean, you take 120 minutes, you take 45 of it for action. What are you left with — divide it by six characters, you have the character arc of Elmer Fudd in a Warner Bros. cartoon. So, that formula is empty to me.”
Mangold did give a shout-out to the creators of a few tentpole movies he enjoys — “I think there have been some wonderful films made in the last decade and a half,” he said. “I mean, Guardians of the Galaxy jumps out at me. The first Iron Man. These were some startlingly good movies in their own way. … But the collective world that they’ve spawned is a little repetitive.”
Watch: ‘X-Men’ Stars Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s Favorite Memories:
Read more from Yahoo Movies:
‘Logan’ Director Reveals Deleted Scene That Focused on Major ‘X-Men’ Character Not in the Movie
‘Logan’: How the Blockbuster Wolverine Film Matches Up With Marvel’s Classic Comic Book (Spoilers!)
Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below.
